Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

96 Journal of the F.M.S. Museums. [Vol. VI,
spirit whom he wounded comes outside and hurls the spear
with which he was stabbed through the wall of the bunibun.
The Halak seizes the spear and then goes to sleep and whatever
offerings the spirit asks of him in his dreams such as bras
kunyet,* or soaked rice in the husk, he throws out of the hut
into the jungle. The spirit takes the bras kunyet and the
soaked rice (bertis) and throws back a few grains as a sign that
he wishes to be friendly with the Halak. So after this the
spirit becomes the Halak's friend and helps him to cure sick
people and in other ways.
The Halak.
I obtained the following further details about Halaks and
their attributes, which I may as well give here.
(i) The Halak is said not to be buried in the earth.
Instead of this his body is placed in a round hut {bumbnn) and
left there. Two or three days after death the body vanishes
from the hut.
tiger.
(ii) The spirit of a dead Halak becomes a B'lian or were-
(iii) The last of the great Halaks in the Sungkai district,
a man named Bekoh, is said to have died about five years ago.
Since then, though there are several men who are supposed to
have a little knowledge, there has been no one to succeed him.
Old Hassan, the Malay, declared that he had seen Bekoh,
when possessed, grow a large pair of canine teeth {taring) three
or four inches long. These on Bekoh's command he had
taken hold and shaken in order to prove that they were
genuine. Jahaia, headman of the settlement between Jeram
Kawan and Sungkai, makes some pretence to being a Halak
and is supposed to have a familiar spirit which descended to
him from his father, but he can scarcely be counted a Senoi,as
his father was a Malay-speaking Selangor aborigine and his
mother I believe half Senoi half "Mai Selangor." I will
however describe a performance, seen at Jahaia's kampong
later on.
Senoi Oaths.
If a Sakai wishes to take an oath he swears by the sun.
This I found out in the following manner. While I was at
Sungkai a dog of Yok Pataling's chased and slightly bit a
goat belonging to a Malay. This was, the Malay thought, too
good a chance of imposing on a -Sakai to be let slip, so he
started "dunning" Yok Pataling for seven dollars cash as
compensation, or demanded in lieu thereof that he should
come and work for him for several days. Hassan, the rattan
gatherer, told me about the affair and I called Yok Pataling
and asked him if the goat was badly damaged. He replied,
that the wound was little more than a scratch. "Very well,"
I said, "you go and tell this Malay that if he considers he has
* Rice coloured with turmeric.